Government and politics

Twenty practice questions on how the United Kingdom is governed — the part of the Life in the UK Test that catches people out most often, because much of it has no equivalent in the country they came from.

The set works through the shape of the state from the top down. The monarch is head of state and politically neutral; the Prime Minister is head of government and a party politician — keeping those two apart is worth more marks than any single fact. Then Parliament: the elected House of Commons with its 650 MPs, one per constituency, and the appointed House of Lords, most of whose members are life peers. Elections are next — the five-year maximum term, first past the post, and the three conditions a voter has to meet: citizenship of the right kind, age, and a place on the electoral register.

The second half covers the machinery: how a Prime Minister is actually chosen (by seats in the Commons, not by a separate national vote), the Cabinet, the official Opposition and why it is part of the system rather than an obstacle to it, the Speaker's impartiality, devolution and the difference between a reserved matter and a devolved one, the permanent and politically neutral civil service, what local councils do, and the freedom of the press — which, unlike the broadcasters, may take sides.

Every question gives a full explanation, and the explanations say why the wrong answers are wrong, not only why the key is right. The material is written from public information published on gov.uk; nothing is reproduced from the official handbook.

• Tell the head of state apart from the head of government, and say what each one actually does
• Describe both Houses of Parliament and how their members get there
• Explain first past the post, the five-year maximum term and who is entitled to vote
• Say how a Prime Minister is chosen and what the Cabinet, the Opposition and the Speaker are for
• Distinguish reserved matters from devolved ones, and central government from local councils

The monarch is head of state but does not govern; an elected Parliament makes the laws and the government answers to it. That combination — a monarch whose powers are bound by convention and law, and a Parliament that holds real power — is what constitutional monarchy means.